Sunday, 28 July 2013
Queen Mary 2 at Sea

I wake this morning, the first day at sea, to hot and humid weather but very smooth sailing.  I enjoy breakfast in the Britannia Dining Room (I shall try to stay away from the King’s Road Buffet whenever possible):  coffee, orange juice, fruit Danish, eggs Benedict with grilled tomatoes, and sautéed potatoes.  The eggs are not as hot as they should be, but the rest of breakfast is fine.

At 9:30am I join a guided tour of the public areas on the ship, which is very useful, because the ship’s designers, while creating grand and beautiful spaces, made some of them difficult to find (there are two different deck 3s in different parts of the ship, for example—don’t ask).  After the tour I have time to check in my passport with UK Immigration in preparation for disembarkation at the end of the journey.  At noon there is the daily ritual ringing of eight bells and the moving of the ship’s clocks forward one hour.  The commander (not just a captain on the QM2) gives his daily navigation report at this time as well.  The clocks will be moved forward one hour five times during the cruise, but at least we don’t lose any sleep time.

 

 

Tour of QM2

 

 

 Promenade Deck

 

 

King's Road Buffet

 

The Largest Library at Sea

 

I don’t have time for lunch yet (besides the fact that I ate a very large breakfast) because it is time for the Planetarium presentation (there is a five-program rotation during the cruise).  This is an enjoyable and well-presented 25-minute program with great visual and sound effects.  You must obtain a ticket in advance, but I was able to obtain one without any trouble shortly before the program began.

After a light lunch (tomato soup, salad, cold cuts, mocha cheese cake—a bite-size piece—and coffee), I head to my stateroom for a well-deserved nap.  The public rooms on the QM2 are all very cold; the AC has been cranked to its limits.  Each stateroom, however, has its own thermostat which works very well and I can keep the temperature regulated as I like (this works much better than the thermostats on Holland America).

Tonight is the first of three formal nights, followed by the Black and White Ball.  Since last night’s glass of wine was not very enjoyable (I did choose it), I decide to spend the half hour before dinner in the Champagne Bar with a glass of bubbly (much better).  A new bottle of Pellegrino is conveniently waiting at my table (as it will every night).  Dinner begins with salmon rilletes in crème fraise with crunchy chopped onions and celery (excellent) and a mixed salad with whole grain mustard vinaigrette (the salad is very good, but the dressing is thin and watery—a situation that continues on remaining meals as well).  The main course is duck a la orange, with Potato Bernay, red cabbage with cranberries, and mixed vegetables.  Unfortunately, the duck is dry and tasteless).  Plain chocolate ice cream for dessert.

 

 

Champagne Bar

I wear my old three-piece dark blue suit, which is much more comfortable than my tuxedo, especially since I had the pants’ waist let out before the trip.  I can’t even remember the last time I wore this suit and I have a newer one at home that I purchased after we moved to Tucson (which I have worn only once, on a somber occasion in Washington, DC).  Everyone is dressed to the hilt and the dress code is strictly enforced.  Those who do not wish to follow the code after 6pm are confined to the brig—no, just to Deck 8 and the King’s Road Buffet.  There are many families travelling on this crossing, and it is interesting to see all the teenagers in tuxedos and ball gowns.  Many women are dressed thematically in Black and White and there is some imitation of the Pippa Middleton look (mostly by women who shouldn’t try).

It has been a long day and I am ready for the comforts of my stateroom, newly-made up by the cabin steward, Luwell, while I was at dinner.

Cheers until tomorrow.

 

 

Saturday, 27 July 2013
New York City

My travel good fortune continues.  My cousin Helen says I always bring good weather to New York City and today is no exception.  The sky is clear, the humidity low, and the temperature in the mid 70s—nothing to sneeze at in New York in late July.  We even slept with windows open and no air conditioning during the night.

Last night (Friday) Helen made a lovely dinner of pork tenderloin with cranberry sauce, wild rice, and mixed green salad.  With cheese and crackers before and banana-chocolate chip gelato after, it was just what I needed—along with a bottle of Pinot Grigio—after a long day of travelling under not-the-best conditions.

At 9:30 this morning (Saturday) we meet our friend Kathi (I hope she’s ok with the label) for a full New York breakfast; I have challah French toast with fat sausage links and I think I don’t ever want to eat again—it was that good and that filling.  We enjoy a short walk to Union Square where the crowds have gathered for the Saturday Morning Farmer’s Market, one of the largest in the City.

Then it’s back to Helen’s where I spend the rest of the morning rearranging my suitcases, which stayed remarkably intact during Friday’s travels.  Willie, Helen’s cat, insists on leaving his fur on all my things and sitting on my lap whenever I change my clothes. We have a short visit with another friend, Josephine, who lives across the hall with her black lab service dog, Zion. Zion is a remarkable animal, able to deal with all the vicissitudes of guiding Josephine through the busy streets of NY, but when his service halter is removed, he is just a big, wild puppy who loves to play and loves to love—all 80 or so pounds of him.

Carmel Car Service picks me up as scheduled at 1:00pm and all is well as we head through the Hugh Carey Tunnel (more commonly known as the Brooklyn-Battery) to the Brooklyn Cruiseport where the QM2 docks since she is too large to maneuver in the piers on the Hudson River.  (When I arrived in New York from Amsterdam on Holland America’s Eurodam last September, we docked in the Hudson at 57^th Street, although it was too early and too dark to see much of the Manhattan skyline as we came in—but you can refer back to the blog archive on the right side of the screen.)

However, the driver tries to drop me several blocks from the port in what looks like a deserted residential street, claiming that this was the address listed on his GPS.  I had reconfirmed with the service earlier in the day what my destination was and although he is at a loss for a few minutes, he does finally look out the car window and notice that the ship is looming over us several blocks away.  The embarkation itself is very quick and efficient and I am on board and in my stateroom by 2pm, which gives me plenty of time to wander and find my bearings before the ship sails at 5:00pm.

Everything on the QM2 is larger and more luxurious than other ships I have sailed on.  The Grand Lobby and Hallways seem more like a large stately hotel in Las Vegas than a ship at sea.  All the corridors are wider than Holland America ships, but the stateroom, while very nice itself, is smaller than on Holland America.  It is very well-fitted-out however, even though the bathroom is small and has only a shower not a full bathtub.  The protected balcony is quite large; protected means it has metal sides rather than glass (which is used on the higher decks).  Since I will be sailing for a week, I will try to post pictures of the ship as we go along, since there are no ports to provide things to see.

 

 

Sail Away and Dinner

Shortly before 5:00pm I join other passengers standing on a raised platform on the top deck (#13) to watch as we pull away from the Brooklyn pier and enter Upper New York Bay.  There are wonderful views of Lower Manhattan, the skyline of New Jersey, the Statue of Liberty, and Governor’s Island.  Since it is a clear, bright day, there are lots of small ships sailing and motoring along as we quietly slip out into deeper waters.  Folks on the back deck are waving small American flags (they come free when you purchase a cocktail), and a band is serenading the large crowd with many reprises of “New York, New York.”  After 20 minutes I head back to my veranda as we pass under the Verrazano Narrows Bridge and into Lower New York Bay and the Atlantic Ocean.  We are sailing a northeast heading passing south of Nantucket Island and east of Halifax at about 19 knots (the QM2 is capable of much higher speeds), which is just slightly faster than other cruise ships.

 

 

 

 

 

My dinner seating is at 8:30pm in the Britannia Dining Room; I have a private table on the second tier of the balcony (there are three tiers as well as the main floor, which is for passengers without specific dining times).  The food tonight is good, although the variety of selections is not terribly interesting—this is a British ship after all.  I enjoy chicken liver pate, rocket (arugula to Americans) salad with roasted tomatoes, fettuccine with smoked salmon in a cream sauce, and a dangerously rich chocolate marquise with orange coulis.  This is accompanied by Pellegrino Sparkling Water and a large glass of not-very-good Pinot Grigio (which I drank anyway).

 

 

New York City
Frida, 26 July 2013

I'm on my way--armed with new luggage and an old blue suit (for the QM2 formal nights; there are three.)

There have been some changes to my itinerary. The good change is that I have been upgraded (again) by Holland America, and now have a Veranda stateroom amidships on an upper deck.  Since the Prinsendam is small enough to maneuver into the river estuaries at Galway, Foynes, Waterford, and Milford Haven, the balcony should provide many good photo opportunities.

The bad change--although not terrible--involves the cancellation of my 6:30am flight this morning from Tucson to Atlanta for mechanical problems.  We had just started boarding when the announcement was made about the problems and the few of us already on the plane had to march back into the terminal.

We waited around 30 minutes with no definitive info about when we would depart so I requested a change of flight plan to get to NYC today.  (If I had to wait for Saturday there would be no way to arrive in NYC before the QM2 sails).  I'm glad I had the foresight to do this before the cancellation announcement was officially made so that I avoided the lines and chaos of all the passengers seeking new flights.

I am writing this as I fly on Delta non-stop fromTucson to Salt Lake City (one of Delta's hubs), and from there I have a non-stop to JFK.  This flight gets me in about one hour later than planned.  I don't like using JFK if at all possible, but I've already changed my airport car pickup to take me from JFK to my cousin Helen's in Manhattan,  I just hope my luggage makes it too, since there was very little time between getting off the cancelled flight to ATL and the departure of the new flight to Salt Lake City.

I'll be back with more details after I board the QM2 on Saturday afternoon.  

Here is the itinerary for my upcoming trip:  7-Day Transatlantic Crossing on Cunard's Queen Mary 2 and 14-Day Celtic Explorer on Holland America's Prinsendam:

Fri 26 July     6:30am  Lv Tucson  Delta 319 / economy comfort  

                    1:07pm  Av Atlanta

                    2:40pm  Lv Atlanta  Delta 802 /  economy comfort  
                    4:58pm  Av New York (LGA) (1 night)
                                                                                                                                      
Sat 27 July    5:00pm  Lv Brooklyn Cruise Terminal / Pier 12 / Cunard Queen Mary 2 / balcony stateroom 4166 (7 nights)

Sat  3 Aug    6:30am  Av Southampton, UK / Cunard coach transportation to LHR       

                   4:05pm  Lv London (LHR)  British Airways 440 / economy
                   6:20pm  Av Amsterdam (2 nights) / Mowenpick Hotel Amsterdam City Centre
                                 
Mon  5 Aug  5:00pm  Lv Amsterdam / Holland America Prinsendam / oceanview stateroom 353 (14 nights)                           
     Tue    6 Aug    At Sea
     Wed   7 Aug    8:00am-5:00pm Milford Haven, UK
     Thu    8 Aug    9:00am-8:00pm Liverpool, UK
     Fri      9 Aug    8:00am  Av Dublin, Ireland (overnight)
     Sat    10 Aug   11:00pm  Lv Dublin
     Tue   11 Aug    At Sea

     Mon  12 Aug    8:00am-6:00pm Galway, Ireland

     Tue   13 Aug    7:00am-4:00pm Foynes, Ireland
     Wed  14 Aug    9:00am-6:00pm Waterford, Ireland
     Thu   15 Aug    9:00am-7:00pm Plymouth, UK
     Fri     16 Aug    8:00am-6:00pm St Peter Port, Channel Islands
     Sat    17 Aug     At Sea
     Sun   18 Aug    8:00am-5:00pm Zeebrugge, Belgium

Mon  19 Aug  8:00am  Av Amsterdam / Holland America transport to AMS 
                     1:10pm  Lv Amsterdam (AMS) / KLM 1857 / business class 
                     2:00pm  Av Dusseldorf (DUS) (1 night) / Avidon Art and Design Hotel                                    
                                    
Tue  20 Aug    1:05pm  Lv Dusseldorf (DUS) / AirBerlin 7450 / business class 
                      3:30pm   Av New York (JFK) (1 night)
                          
Wed  21 Aug  12:59pm  Lv New York (LGA)  DL 781 / economy comfort 

                      3:32pm  Av Atlanta

                      6:55pm  Lv Atlanta / DL 1027 / economy comfort                           
                      8:00pm  Av Tucson